1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus which has a relatively simple structure and which can firmly clamp an optical disk therein.
2. Description of Prior Art
A typical optical disk defines a clamping area between a central hole thereof and a data storage area thereof. The clamping area is used for a disk clamper of an optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus to clamp the optical disk. In operation, the optical disk is carried into or out from the optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus by a sliding loading device. When the optical disk is loaded, it is positioned on a turntable of the optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus. The turntable rotates the optical disk, and an optical pick-up head is driven along a radial direction of the optical disk by a driving mechanism and a guiding mechanism. The optical pick-up head thus reads and/or reproduces information contained in the optical disk.
The conventional disk clamper clamps the optical disk using elastic means. A first elastic device is placed on a top surface of the turntable, and a second elastic device is placed at an undersurface of the disk clamper. When the optical disk is positioned on the turntable, the first elastic device and the second elastic device separately clamp the turntable and the disk clamper, so that the two sides of the clamping area of the optical disk are pressed by the turntable and the disk clamper separately. Thus the optical disk is fastened between the turntable and the disk clamper. A related Chinese patent disclosing this structure is CN96113218.
However, this kind of disk clamper has an unduly complex structure. In addition, if the optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus is subjected to vibration from an outside source, the first elastic device and the second elastic device are liable to vibrate too, and the rotation of the optical disk may become unstable. Furthermore, because the diameter of the disk clamper is usually small, and because the second elastic device is usually smaller than the disk clamper, the second elastic device cannot provide enough clamping force to reliably clamp the optical disk. Yet if the diameter of the second elastic device is enlarged, the disk clamper must be correspondingly enlarged to the extent that it approaches the size of the diameter of the clamping area of the optical disk. In these circumstances, if there is no optical disk in the optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus, the optical pick-up head is liable to scan a peripheral portion of the disk clamper. If the peripheral portion of the disk clamper can reflect light, then the optical pick-up head may misread the disk clamper as being an optical disk. Moreover, when an optical disk is rotating in the optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus, the peripheral portion of the disk clamper is liable to scrape and damage the data storage area of the optical disk.
An optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus which can overcome the above-described problems is desired.